Gender and The Military March 29th 2015

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of gender in the military is the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. This simply means that you shouldn't ask anyone about their sexuality, and you shouldn't be talking about your own. In retrospect, the idea of not discussing sexuality should be connected to the fact that something as trivial as this should have nothing to do with the way people preform their duties. If all people are trained the same, and tested the same, and can preform at a level that is consistent with all the others in the military, then there should be no reason to reject or dismiss people. This same idea goes along with women in the military. We see far less women in the military because this is not where the gender stereotypes want them to be. They want them to be at home with the family, being a military wife. When a father is at home, being a military husband, gender stereotypes come into play again. This role reversal is not so common, as well as judged based on the gender stereotypes. Is a man going to have a harder time at home with his children when is wife is away? The immediate answer to this question should be no. Stereotyping men as military fathers compared to military wives is not fair. It goes hand-in-hand with the ideas of single parenthood. This is less of a role reversal and more of a surviving based on the situation you are in. Which should go for all military families. Media plays into these stereotypes all too often. There are always commercials on TV and the internet about a military wife and her children waiting and worrying about when her husband will come home. BUT, there are commercials in the media that portray female soldiers returning home. Here is one example that comes to mind. In this commercial, a woman is coming home to a dog, rather than a family. This can be taken a few different ways. One way beings, hey look they are finally showing women from the military returning home, or two, why not show her returning to a family. Does she not have a family yet? Etc. I also understand this is a commercial for dog food, but it still raises important questions. There is so much debate and discussion revolving around gender in the military. I think it is important to allow people to be who they are, as well as work together to fight for our country. There should be no reason why people who are different should be penalized for trying to defend our country.